News

Steven Drizin and Laura Nirider to Appear in “Making a Murderer” Season Two

July 20, 2016

Netflix announced July 19, 2016 that its hit documentary series Making A Murderer will return, and the new episodes will feature Steven Drizin (JD ’86) and Laura Nirider (JD ’08) of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth (CWCY), as they continue to advocate for their client Brendan Dassey.

The series, by filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, tells the story of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man convicted of sexual assault in 1985, only to be exonerated by DNA evidence and released in 2003. In 2005, while he had a $36 million civil lawsuit pending against county and law enforcement leaders, he was arrested for the murder of a 25-year-old woman last seen on his property.

During the course of the investigation, Avery’s then-16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey was also charged with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and first-degree sexual assault. Avery and Dassey were found guilty, in separate trials, in 2007. Drizin and Nirider are members of the team leading Dassey’s case through the appellate process.

Listen to Drizin and Nirider discuss the case—and youth interrogation and false confessions more broadly—with Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Dean Daniel Rodriguez on the new Planet Lex podcast.

Watch a video of Drizin and Nirider’s presentation “Brendan Dassey: A True Story of a False Confession.” (An online course version, eligible for 2 professional responsibility continuing legal education credits in the state of Illinois, is available for purchase.)